Quote:
Originally Posted by horseback
In the cash poor Depression era US Army Air Corps, big bombers offered a lot of bang for the taxpayers' buck (and they looked quite impressive).
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Speaking of big and impressive Depression Era bombers, in a magic world where we could have everything we wanted from a combat flight sim, I'd love to see the XB-19 modeled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_XB-19
Underpowered and slow, but decent payload, excellent range for the era and, of course, lots of guns.
Quote:
Originally Posted by horseback
A lot of the men who were generals in 1942 made their marks in the early-mid 1930s as advocates of this strategy before the development of radar made locating the bomber formations a lot less chancy, and fighter aircraft became not only as fast and high flying as the big bombers, but much more so.
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Of course, this is a very American (and USAAF) point of view. The USN, Luftwaffe, VVS, RAF, Reggia Aeronautica, IJN and IJAAF all made different decisions regarding "the next war" in the 1930s.
In all cases, however, their decisions for medium or heavy bombers included adding a number of dedicated gunners, often in positions where the gun had a very limited fields of view and arcs of fire. And, one of the things that IL2 has taught me is just how freaking useless a flexible gun with limited arc of fire and field of view is.
But, as you point out, the thing that really blindsided the military strategists of the 1930s (when the major combatants were designing the air forces that would be used during WW2) was the invention of radar. The argument that "the bomber will always get through" falls short if you have a device that can detect the bombers as they take off and form up!
It even messes up decisions about where to place guns. Most bomber designs assumed that fighters would fall into a stern chase and would be attacking from below as they rose to intercept. So, lots of guns were placed to guard the plane's belly and rear.
But, with radar, fighters could position themselves ahead and above the bomber formation, so at least some of the U.S. heavy bombers had to be hastily redesigned with heavier guns to the front of the plane.